Antipsychotic medication and suicide risk among schizophrenic and paranoid inpatients. A controlled retrospective study.

A retrospective analysis of the psychotrophic medication, illness history and recent mental symptoms of 28 schizophrenic or paranoid inpatients who had committed suicide and the same number of matched control subjects was carried out. The groups were first compared separately for every variable, and 6 statistically most significant variables in the paired comparisons were then entered into a stepwise linear logistic regression model. Four statistically significant differences between the groups were found with the paired comparisons. The suicide group had more often previous suicide attempts, lower neuroleptic doses, more depressive symptoms and less positive schizophrenic symptoms compared to their controls. The results of the regression analysis suggested that the lower neuroleptic doses in the suicide group were more probably a consequence of the differences in the symptom profile than in a direct causal relationship to the suicides per se.